When Manchester United signed Ji-Sung Park, cynics suggested he was bought as much for his commercial and marketing power in his native Asia as for his on-field ability.

Yet Park proved the folly of that view, playing an important - if at times understated - role in helping United win four Premier League titles and the Champions League during his seven-year spell at Old Trafford.

When Park moved to Queen's Park Rangers this summer, Sir Alex Ferguson moved swiftly to recruit another player from the Far East in Japan's Shinji Kagawa, a £17million buy from Borussia Dortmund.

With Kagawa, there has been none of the cynicism that surrounded the arrival of Park, and that is down to the immediate impact the midfielder has made on the pitch after just two games for United.

In the 1-0 defeat against Everton and the 3-2 win over Fulham, Kagawa was comfortably United's best player, operating behind the main striker and linking the midfield and attack with his intelligent movement and vision.

Shinji Kagawa: Man United's new midfield diamond (Image: John Peters)

Ferguson has signed some midfield flops in the past decade at United, among them Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Liam Miller, while Juan Sebastian Veron was a world-class player who simply failed to adapt to English football.

But Kagawa, voted the Bundesliga Player of the Year last season, ahead of established talents like Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, looks to be one of Ferguson's shrewdest signings since he plucked a then unknown Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon in 2003.

Kagawa is the kind of player United have needed for the past few seasons, one with the creative guile and technical ability to open up opposing defences for the forwards, as well as providing his own goalscoring threat from midfield.

Comfortable with the ball on either foot, with a quick brain and an equally swift turn of pace to take him away from opponents, Kagawa is central to Ferguson's new-look United, with fellow new signing Robin van Persie operating at the apex of the attack.

Not since Paul Scholes in his pomp have United had a midfield dynamo adept at creating and scoring goals on a consistent basis, with Kagawa now offering Ferguson's side a different dimension going forward.

Kagawa, perhaps more so than van Persie, already looks to be the key signing for United this summer, a player whose marauding influence may ultimately ensure Ferguson's players do not suffer a repeat of last season and end this campaign empty-handed.

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Read David McDonnell's Manchester United column exclusively on MirrorFootball every Tuesday